ILLINI RTC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL (GRECO)

SCHEDULE

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 -- KAMAL BEY WRESTLES

Time: 3:30 am (Central)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 -- JOE "THE RAUSTLER" RAU WRESTLES

Time: 3:30 am (Central)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 -- ZAC BRAUNAGEL WRESTLES

Time: 3:30 am (Central)

TV/STREAMING

FloWrestling (subscription service) The 2023 Senior World Championships broadcast starts on Sep 16, 2023 and runs until Sep 24, 2023. Stream or cast from your desktop, mobile or TV. Now available on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast and Apple TV. Don’t forget to download the FloSports app on iOS or Android! If you can’t watch live, catch up with the replays! Video footage from the event will be archived and stored in a video library for FloWrestling subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscription.

UWW+ (subscription service) United World Wrestling has just started their own subscription service for world-level wrestling and grappling events. There's more information here. It is likely that a VPN alone won't work to watch Worlds any longer. 

THE ILLINI RTC BLOG AND DONATIONS

Before going one step farther, we want to make sure you are aware of the ILLINI RTC Blog and what has been written about the journey so far. Here's a small, fun snippet:

"We have continued with the training plan that we first incorporated in the fall of 2022.  It is Zane's final phase of his periodization and we could not be happier with the way he looks.  His normal training partner, 2x World Medalist Bekhbayar Erdenebat, wasn’t able to travel with us due to visa issues between Mongolia and Germany.  We did all the paperwork needed and worked extremely hard to get him here, but Germans just won’t let Mongolians in their country for some reason.  Genghis Khan probably did something hundreds of years ago that they are still holding some secret grudge about.  While Beke will meet us in Serbia (Serbians apparently do not have the same disdain for Mongolians), we were lucky enough to be able to get someone last minute to train with us in Germany, U20 Silver Medalist Luke Lilledahl.  Luke is a great kid that wrestles with a lot of speed, so he has been perfect for Zane."

Check out the rest here, and then go to this link to donate to a worthy cause. We've said it before, but to reiterate, The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond is so penny-poor that when our bank account gets hacked, the criminal leaves us money. Still, we just donated. 

Also, free t-shirt!

THE BRACKETS

KAMAL BEY

First on the schedule is home-grown Army (WCAP) athlete Kamal Bey, inventor of the "Bey Bomb." Kamal has the best celebration in all of wrestling, a back flip followed by a super hero pose. We would love to see it! 

The creator of the Bey Bomb has a real unknown in the first round in Fabio Dietsche from Switzerland. He has only wrestled in one international match last year and finished 0-1, a loser by techfall. 

If I'm reading the new UWW athlete information correctly, he's been wrestling since 2016. He has an 0-12 record in international events. This fellow could be related to Hugo Dietsche, who represented Switzerland in Greco during three Olympics from 1984 to 1992. Or, Dietsche could translate to "Smith" in English. 

You would think that Bey's opponent in the next round would be Suleymanov of Azerbaijan, as that fellow won a World Bronze a couple years ago. The Fin lost to Spencer Woods in the Bronze match at the Zagreb ranking tournament. 

Kamal has a real sweet draw, as he could face the #8 seed and then the #1 seed--who he beat recently at the Budapest ranking tournament 7-4. 

HIS MATCHES

Kamal won his first match over Dietsche of Switzerland by the score of 4-1. In the second round, he faced Suleymanov of Azerbaijan. That didn't go nearly as well. Bey was aggressive and got over-extended twice leading to big points to the former World Senior and U23 Silver medalist. 

Suleymanov went on to pretty much destroy the rest of the field to reach the finals. That drew Bey back into repechage. 

Bey has to win three in repechage to get to the Bronze match. He's got Sarkkinen of Finland first, a U23 2023 Gold at 82kg, but Kamal can win that. In the last year, the Finn has beaten USA's RaVaughn Perkins by one and lost to Spencer Woods by four. 

Then, it's Gutu of Moldova next, another 2023 U23 Gold, but at 77kg. 

Finally, there's Zhadrayev of Kazakhstan, who is a 2017 World Silver. 

UPDATE:  Kamal won his first match in repechage against Sarkkinen of Finland. Bey was up 2-0 at the break. His first score was a pushout from a nasty underhook. His second was an activity point. Bey worked hard but couldn't turn or throw the Finn. 

Second period, it was Bey who went for a headlock throw. It was nasty, but it was also caught by Sarkkinen. He pushed Kamal Bey down for two. Later, Bey was called passive and put down. That made it 3-2 for the Finn, but he couldn't turn or throw the American. 

With a minute to go, down by a point, Bey got two takedowns to win 7-3. The additional point was a challenge lost. 

In his next repechage match, Bey ran out of steam, losing 3-3 to Gutu of Moldova. His countrymen are in the stands with those three-dollar clarinets making lots of noise. Bey was down 2-3 at the break. His effort put the Moldovan down in the second, but Bey couldn't turn or throw him. After a strong sprint at the end, there were no more points. 

Bey is still a super hero. 

JOE "THE RAUSTLER" RAU

Next up is Josef Rau, another home-grown lad who also spends time entertaining Chicago-land comedy crowds with improv. He's a multi-time World Team member bringing experience to the squad. 

The Raustler has Filip Smetko in the first round. He's ranked 55th by UWW at the weight well behind another Croatian wrestler. Hmmm. This could be good news for Rau. The two have met at least once previously at the 2021 Zagreb Open at 87 kilos. The American came away with the win by fall at 2:23. 

Joe Rau really wants that first win because it sets him up with a match against a living legend, Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia. All eyes will be on the match, and even if Joe loses, there's a great possibility that he's drawn into repechage. 

UPDATE:  Joe Rau wins his first match against Filip Smetko of Croatia by a 4-1 count. Like in their previous match, Rau had this guy pinned, except that in this match, the Croatian's head was just outside the ring. 

Joe owes his win to the Devil. At this link, you can see videos by Rau including "The Devil Sketch," in which he humorously gives thanks to Satan for a wrestling championship. Improv! 

Rau will have 9-time Olympic and World medalist Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia in the next round. As we noted previously, it is either shock the world time or likely repechage.

UPDATE:  Joe Rau didn't shock the world. The legend named Artur Aleksanyan beat him 9-0. But that's okay because the Armenian went on to destroy the rest of the bracket and reach the finals. That brought Rau back into repechage. 

Win two matches, and the Raustler will wrestle for Bronze. 

His first match at 3:30 am (Eastern) will be against Nicu Ojog from Romania. This fellow was a 2022 Euro Silver at 87 kilos. Back in 2018, the Romanian was second at U23 Worlds. Last year, he finished 22nd at Senior Worlds.

Get by Ojog, and Rau's next match will be against Artur Omarov of the Czech Republic. He represented that country at the 2020 Olympics, and he also finished third at both the 2020 individual World Cup and this year's Euro Championships.

Win both of those matches, and it might be easier for Joe in the Bronze match against Mindaugas Venckaitis of Lithuania. This young fellow's best finish ever is a fifth-place showing at this year's U23 Euros. Seriously, his other finishes are usually in the teens. This gives Rau something to shoot for!

UPDATE:  Joe wrestled his butt off and looked to be doing great, having put his opponent down in par terre. Rau attempted a gut that was an erg from two points. When those points weren't awarded, the Raustler went for a grounded head pinch. The Romanian was able to step over for the pin.

Here's hoping that Josef Rau keeps it up for the Olympic year.  

ZAC BRAUNAGEL

Finally, there's current ILLINI athlete Zac Braunagel, who has been on the world stage before but not at the Senior level. He was a Junior World Teamer, and he kicked butt at the Pan Ams.  

We can't find a single reference on the internet to Zac's first-round opponent, Annammedov from Turkmenistan. In fact, we doubt that there is even a real country by that name. Seriously, there is no wrestler by that name ranked in the top 100 at 87 kg or 82 kg or 97 kg. We looked! 

Get past his unknown challenger in the first round, and he faces a 32-year-old from Ukraine who is a politician and Greco wrestler. From 2007 until his last international competition in 2021, Zhan Beleniuk has medaled in 20 out of 22 events. 

I put a link there because that seems crazy, but it is true. 

He's won the Olympics, multiple World and Euro Championships, and he medaled as a cadet and junior. Win that match, and Zac would get the #1 seed from Turkey.

UPDATE: We finally found some information about Azym Annamammedov on the UWW website. The good news for him is that he finished 4th at the U23 Asian Championships this year. The bad news is that he earned that 4th place finish with three losses and zero wins. 

The Turkmen athlete also finished 7th as a Cadet in the Asian Championships in 2019. He won one and lost another. 

HIS MATCHES

Zac beat the Turkmen in the first round by the score of 8-3. His opponent jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after a failed throw by Braunagel. Then, Zac was put down and that gave another point to his foe. 

Down 0-3, the Brawlnagel mounted a comeback.

First, it was a couple of push outs. Then, Zac got a passivity point to make it 3-3 with the Turkmenistan wrestler holding criteria. That didn't last, however, as the ILLINI athlete hit him for a four-point throw on the edge of the mat. After a lost challenge the final score was 8-3! 

This is what it looked like:

We didn't get to see his second round match because we were busy with the above video. However, according to Coach Medlin, Zac wrestled his butt off against the current Olympic champion, who also won a Silver at a previous Olympics and, of course, many World Championship Golds and other medals. The score was 5-1 for the bad guy.

Here's hoping we don't see "Brent Metcalf Syndrome," where you wear out your opponent so much they lose their next round match. Rather, hoping for repechage. Still, you gotta respect the fact that Brawny will put up his best against the best and not lay down. 

In his last three international matches, Zac has faced two MULTIPLE Olympic and World Medalists, and the cumulative score for both matches is 2 for the good guy and 7 for the bad guys. And he's just starting. 

Now it's time to do even more research to find out about this Turkmenistan fellow. GOOD LUCK!